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As Assad Hangs on, Turkey Confronts Failure in Syria

Turkey’s policies in Syria have failed, writes Andrew Parasiliti. The best chance for resolving the crisis now lies with Lakhdar Brahimi. Incremental support for the Syrian opposition will only serve to prolong the fighting and intensify the border conflict, and President Gul's “worst-case scenario” could get even worse.
Smoke rises after a mortar bomb fired from Syria landed in Turkish soil on the Turkish-Syrian border in southern Hatay province October 8, 2012. Turkey's military launched a retaliatory strike after Syria fired a mortar bomb into countryside in Turkey's southern province of Hatay on Monday, a Turkish state official told Reuters. It was the sixth consecutive day of Turkish retaliation against bombardment from the Syrian side of the border, where President Bashar al-Assad's forces are battling rebels. REUTERS

Turkish President Abdullah Gul said this week that Syria is becoming the “worst-case scenario that we’ve all been dreading.”

The shelling across the Turkish-Syrian border, now entering its seventh day, gives further testimony, as if any were needed, that Turkey’s Syria policies have failed and that the civil war in Syria is also a regional, sectarian war, with no end in sight.

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